Check out this fun card from Aspenhome Furniture, complete with easy (and very memorable) ways to create the perfect guest bedroom for the holidays! See if you can find all 15 tips!
At 103" tall, the Napa grand wall, by Aspenhome Furniture, is ideal for a living room with high ceilings... and meets all the criteria of the perfect focal point.
A living room’s focal point can be more than just pretty to look at. It also gives a room purpose and guides furniture placement!
Unless your living room design has an obvious focal point (a large fireplace, unusual windows), you’ll need to create one. How? Select an object that promotes the room’s main activity. A handsome cabinet makes TV-watching easier, a unique area rug under a sofa and chairs invite together.
According to interior designers, the perfect focal point in a room should meet eight criteria…
#1. Nice to look at! Being the center of attention, a room’s focal point needs good design and detail. If choosing furniture as a focal point, here’s a tip. The Ancient Greeks insisted that the most beautiful objects had a ratio (between top and bottom sections) of about 2/3 : 1/3. Given how important a focal point is, it helps if it meets classical standards!
#2. Well lit. Recessed lighting within the focal point, or accent lighting on the focal point adds art gallery-like drama.
#3. Personal. Adding books, picture frames or favorite objects above or inside a focal point makes it unique. Adjustable shelves in a cabinet are ideal for customizing your own display.
#4. Useful. A focal point with a purpose does double duty! A fireplace adds warmth. Furniture with drawers adds storage. Cabinets with glass doors keeps media components dust-free and the remote control working!
#5. Without a bad side! There can’t be any unfinished sides on furniture thats also a focal point. If a tall piece of furniture is visible from a balcony, the top must look as good as the front!
#6. Next to seating. Whether a fireplace, window or TV wall, focal points should draw us like a magnet, making a convenient, comfortable place to perch nearby… whether a chair or full seating area.
#7. Scaled for the room. A focal point needs to be right-sized for the room! In a large living room with high ceilings, a tall piece of furniture will look more proportionate. In a small room or one with low-ceilings, a low, wide unit will look more proprotionate… and make the ceilings look higher!
#8. Unlike the wall behind it. Focal points that contrast the color or texture of the wall behind it stand out. Objects with sculptural, or three-dimensional qualities add extra drama.
In most living and family rooms, watching TV is the main activity! A grand cabinet, like the Napa grand wall (above) houses a large TV without making the TV itself the focus of the room.
This stylish wh
ite kitchen is the Room of the Month in our current issue of RoomPlanners magazine. If you’d like to read more about this white kitchen makeover, check out page 37-39 of the current issue.
We’d like to know which dining chair you’d put in the neighboring dining area beside the kitchen. Cast your vote, or just check out the results!
This fall’s color options are expanding from simple red-and-green, and even sophisticated silver-and-gold combinations. New favorite color combinations are emerging… from plums and purples with gold to sophisticated light and dark neutrals to pale baby blues with white and silver.
We’re polling our readers to see which they liked best. Cast your vote below, or check the poll results so far!
Alyssa, by Ashley Furniture
This pretty dining room furniture (Alyssa, by Ashley Furniture) makes a nice choice for a small dining room or even a dressy kitchen. Its design also offers some clues to guide color and accessory choices.
Our first home decorating clue is all the curve on this dining table and chairs! Curves are especially French, and there are plenty of them here!
A dining chair can help set the entire home decorating direction for a room, and the Alyssa chair is no exception.
The metal legs are modeled after the French cabriole leg – that S-shaped French leg that always suggests a refined, elegant and slightly dressy room.
The shiny damask fabric on the chair seat has inspired many dressy dining room tablecloths and linens… and French ones in particular! Damask is typically paired up with the fancy glassware and the good china, so that’s an important clue too.
Then there’s all that scrolling metal. You can almost pick out a fleur de lys pattern in the chair back….that popular French design of a lily that’s inspired many a formal, French pattern over the years.
The round metal ring above the fancy wood base on the dining table sort of resembles a corona, or the base of a crown and the braided edge of the table resembles the edge of a pie or braided French bread.
With all the fancy details on this dining room, a French-inspired decor seems to be in order! Here are two schemes… one that’s a little on the formal side… one that’s just fun.
First, a very classic
, very dressy French option.
The interior paint colors here are delicate and muted… dusty rose, coral and champagne tones. Artwork and accents look suitably French – but that doesn’t have to mean ornate curves, scroll or flowers are a pretty good bet. The chandelier on the right is elegant with all those French-looking crystals, but notice it’s also long and narrow rather than wide – that’s to keep it in scale with the smaller table. The single bowl-shaped pendant on the left is a more current choice. It picks up on the scrolled metal, but it’s simpler against all the curves in the furniture. Dressy fabrics are in order here – for windows and walls, use simple sheers, a delicate stripe or even a damask pattern that’s lighter or darker than the chair seat. For an elegant, no-fail French effect, run curtains from the floor right to the ceiling.
A second option is more casual, b
ut equally French.
The paint colors here are natural and organic…. muted greens and yellows that remind us of chardonnay wine and olives. Artwork could include scenes of the Paris streets – casual shots of store windows, bistro cafes or even French people. Drawings of French food or wine bottles are good choices… so are French words included on the art. Not to worry if you can’t pronounce them – they just need to add a little French culture and sophistication! Clocks also make a nice accent – especially ones that looks like they might belong in a Paris train station – large, with an antique face and curved numbers. To keep that Paris neighborhood feeling going, use a French lantern rather than a chandelier. Fabrics can be more informal, but still with a bit of a sheen. Draperies could cover the entire window… or just the lower half if you’re up for the French café curtain look.
To see interior paint color numbers (Behr), click on the photo to enlarge it. For more home decor ideas, visit www.roomplanners.com. To receive our free room design magazine, sign up here.
Left, Loreen Epp (Editor-in-Chief, RoomPlanners magazine). Right, Jane Seymour.
I had a chance to speak with renowned acress and artist Jane Seymour about her new furniture designs last month in High Point, North Carolina.
Seymour premiered a trio of furniture collections a year ago, including Palace Gates, Cobblestone Road and Hollywood Swank. This fall, her Grand Shore ( inspired by grand hotels of bygone eras), and Lakeshore Retreat (inspired by dreamy summer vacations by the lake) were introduced.
Seymour’s designs are inspired by her passion for art and design. (Seymour also recently designed an Open Hearts necklace for Kay Jewelers) She feels strongly about developing unique and versatile furniture collections that offer consumers affordable elegance. Her style is decidedly nostalgic and romantic, though her Hollywood Swank collection below has a fair bit of glam!
Hollywood Swank is one of Jane Seymour's furniture designs, by AICO/Amini Innovation Corp.
A new home department just opened at Lord & Taylor’s flagship store in Manhattan. The company hasn’t sold furniture or home furnishing products in 20 years, but is testing consumer interest in furniture, bedding and tabletop.
Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein brands headline. Prices aren’t for the faint of heart (try $130 for a toss pillow), but the styling lives up to what you’d expect from these brands.
A few highlights from their grand opening this week…
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Here’s a trick to make your bedroom look professionally-designed: Coordinate the colors of your bedroom’s linens (comforter, pillows, sheets) with the colors of your bedroom’s wall art… and place them so they’re seen together.
A few examples! Below, the wall art complements the color (and patterns) found in the bedding and the bed itself. With such neutral-colored (black and white) bedding and artwork, an unrelated (blue) colored walls is a good choice.
Another example! The wall is painted the same color as the quilt at the end of the bed. But again, notice how the colors in the wall art pick up the colors in the patterned comforter and pillows.
A small detail with a big impact!
Having to raise your voice to be heard by guests sitting in the same room is always a bit unfortunate… especially in a room that’s all about conversation!
This living room suffers from the ’furniture sprawl’ typical of many big living rooms. The furniture is spread out to line the walls and fill the space, with nothing the right distance from anything. Sadly, intimate conversation… or a feeling of warmth… won’t happen here.
An over-sized living room needs a tight furniture arrangment so items (and people!) don’t float aimlessly around the room.
If you’ve got a large living room, here’s how to make it work!
* Pull the furniture into the center of the room. Use the extra space to create a walkway around the furniture rather than in front of it. Or move it to one side and use the other side for a second seating area, game table, grand piano or office area.
* Place furniture in an L-shaped or U-shaped seating cluster, with end tables to fill in the corners. A sectional makes a great choice. Use an area rug to anchor, or visually keep the pieces together in the large space.
* Embrace empty wall space! It’s more appealing in a large space than small pieces of artwork or furniture scattered about. Make the seating area the major focus of attention, with a few large pieces of art or cabinets placed against feature walls.
You don’t need to see ghosts or hear voices to live with a scary room. Scary rooms don’t just appear at night or at the onset of a serious thunder storm - and they go well beyond creaky floorboards. In a scary room, something just isn’t right.. objects may be misplaced or simply out of sync with each other.
See if one of these types of scary rooms are haunting your home… and find out how to avoid them!
The Decomposed Room
Scary rooms often have a dismembered or disjointed quality. Items that are similar in look or function, are spread evenly around a room rather than grouped together. Pictures are hung anywhere rather than closely aligned with furniture. Sofas and chairs are lined up along walls rather than grouped together to create an inviting conversation area.
Decomposition is common in large rooms where there’s pressure to ’fill space’. But it’s just as likely to occur in small rooms where furnishings are scattered too randomly around a room. But the fix is easy. Simply bring furniture closer together and anchor it with rugs, accents and pictures. You can then leave the rest of the room empty and it’ll look just fine!
The Faceless Room
You don’t need to be a headless horseman to suffer an identity crisis. A room without a style, or point of view can be as faceless as a phantom at the Opera or a horse rider from Sleepy Hollow who lost his head.
A faceless room occurs when furnishing styles, colors or patterns are combined without enough regard to compatibility.
Without a definable style or attitude to furnishing selections, a room can feel a bit like a skeleton—all bones with no flesh to fill in the physical features that create differentiation or personality.
The fix? Find a style you like and stick with it! Choose items that share a similar style type, color palette or texture.
The Scaly Room
Rough, dry textures can be irritating enough. But a scaly room has more to do with proportion problems, or too much contrast in size between items. A coffee table that’s too small for the sofa, a picture that’s too large for the cabinet under it, a window that’s too small for the room… all add up to a sizable issue.
Fixing a scaly room means balancing the objects on either side of it – the same way you’d balance weight on a boat or plane. That doesn’t mean everything has to be the same size… large items can be balanced with a collection of smaller items.
The perceived size of an item can also be adjusted with simple tricks. Long or wide curtains make a too-small window look bigger. A rug makes a too-small table look more substantial. A too-big piece of furniture looks smaller when the wall behind it is painted a similar color.
For examples of scary rooms, and ideas on how to fix them, click on the RoomPlanners issue (left). To receive our free online magazine, subscribe here.
